Let's Remember Some Mentors

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TylerV
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Let's Remember Some Mentors

Post by TylerV »

With the community still being in a rough place due to COVID, I wanted to ride the high spirits the Internet Charity Tournament created and take a moment to remember the mentors.

I was lucky enough to be selected as this year's IHSSBCA Friend of Scholastic Bowl Award and while preparing my speech, that will unfortunately be delayed a year, it was impossible for me to ignore just how much impact outstanding individuals have had on my quiz bowl career. I would like to take a moment to talk about these individuals, in no particular order, and encourage others to do the same.

John Vos

During high school, I was not a great student. A combination of depression over my brother's cancer diagnosis and my first real breakup ruined my Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years. I graduated with a GPA of 1.81 and was often ineligible for extracurricular activities due to my grades. Despite my failings, and my inability to contribute to the quiz bowl team, Mr. Vos was always there to give me guidance.

Mr. Vos wore many hats. In one year, he was in charge of the Outdoor Club, in charge of the Fencing Club, which he funded out of pocket, the lead technology teacher, the head quiz bowl coach, and the head of the Teachers' Union in a year where our district lost a lawsuit and started cutting expenses whenever they could. I don't know how he did it, let alone have time to help students as much as he did.

It's hard to summarize the impact he has had on my life in one paragraph, let alone one word, but if I had to choose one it would be perseverance. Despite going through hell and being pulled a million different ways, Mr. Vos never faulted, at least as far as I could tell. He never gave up on me or anyone else for that matter and continued to keep me engaged in school even when I wanted to give up completely.

It's safe to say that without Mr. Vos, I wouldn't have any of the other mentors on this list, and so for that I thank him deeply.

Mike Sorice

The very first time I met Mike Sorice was at an ACE Camp hosted at UIUC in the summer of 2013. Before he read a round for me, my friend mentioned at dinner about this moderator who has a voice deeper than my musically-talented friend could sing. The very next day, Sorice read a round to me which, upon the conclusion, he took time to fully draw out and explain the Laffer curve to everyone in the room.

Years later, when I was a young transfer student at the University of Illinois, I agreed to help Sorice at an IHSA Regional. When I met his team he immediately introduced me as "his good friend, Mr. Vaughan" and allowed his team to introduce themselves to me as well. This small gesture of respect, given both me and his team, is something that has stuck with me since it happened.

After that, Sorice and I worked hand-in-hand for years making Illinois NAQT State the best tournament it could possibly be. During these years, I learned so much about tournament directing, resource management, and dealing with interpersonal conflict, as well as countless other useful skills. It is safe to say that I would not be nearly the in-person staffer I am without the guidance of Sorice.

If I had to choose a word to represent Sorice, it would be respect. In every activity, especially one as niche as quizbowl, there are moments where the experienced participants may not actively listen to a newer one, or may object to their reasoning without giving a full explanation. I have never seen this behavior out of Sorice. Sorice instills respect in his team, in his friends, and to those who happen to be within hearing range of his voice, which as you might imagine covers a large portion of North America. I am glad to count Sorice among my friends and I am honored to have been able to be mentored by him.

Tom Egan

I met Tom Egan rather late compared to my other mentors. I believe I did not see him in person or interact with him until NAQT Illinois State 2017, something that I deeply regret. I like to say that Egan-ness is next to Godliness, but I feel even that does not fully convey how much I appreciate Tom Egan.

Tom Egan, more than anybody I know, is the rare quiz bowl historian who works very hard to share his knowledge. You may look no further than this link for proof. I have spent countless hours being regaled by Egan with stories of years past, something that is both highly entertaining and highly informative. It is so easy in today's day and age to look back on past quiz bowl and disregard it in its entirety, but it would be so much more easier if there weren't people like Egan keeping the stories alive.

If I had to choose a word to represent Egan, it would be generosity. Before Egan, I was always a generous person, but he showed me what true generosity really looks like. Egan is a rather private fellow, so I will not disclose his feats, but I have never ceased being impressed by his willingness to help others in need or to show appreciation, no matter how small or large the gesture is.

I would like to end this section with a story. While coming back from an NHBB event, Egan invited Brad Fischer, who you will be hearing more about soon, and I to come to this auction house he volunteers at so he could show us the amazing things they had in their collection.

Once we arrived, Egan proceeded to show us around the entire room giving detailed explanations on both how the item came into their possession and its historical significance or otherwise "cool" factor. It was an amazing time and I think it perfectly encapsulates who Tom Egan is: Incredibly knowledgeable, incredibly hardworking, and incredibly willing to share his hard work and knowledge with his friends.


Brad Fischer

Brad Fischer is one of my closest friends and we've shed more blood, sweat, and tears together than I would like to admit. Like with my next pick, there is too much to say here for me to even attempt to type it out, but I will attempt to summarize him as best I can.

When I first joined SCOP, as a history player, it was Brad that took me under his wing. He taught me about the core concepts of question writing that I otherwise would have likely never grasped.

When Brad was hired on at IAC, he brought me in as his right hand man (and this passage would not be complete if I failed to make a Hamilton reference of some sort, so I will say that I, thankfully, have never had to man Brad's journal.) Our symbiotic work relationship has led to some fantastic times and given me a career I never dreamed of having.

Whether it's sitting in his living room writing questions for 5 hours, or playing questions in a Beef-A-Roo, or sitting in fantastic Bucks seats watching them lose to the Miami Heat, every moment I spend with Brad is one I cherish.

If I had to choose a word to represent Brad, it would be creativity. There have been countless times where Brad has solved a problem, or created a fantastic question, in an absolutely creative manner. His ability to work within a strict structure, such as good question writing, and still find little pockets to inject creativity into has never ceased to impress me. I am a better question writer, and a better person, because Brad Fischer exists.

Kristin Strey

Kristin Strey, whether she likes to admit it or not, is one of the most important cogs in the Illinois quiz bowl machine. There isn't a hat she doesn't wear: statistician, moderator, scorekeeper, newsletter editor, scorebook tsar, novice coordinator (and head editor of SCOP!), as well as many things I am sure I am forgetting, and she does all of them with a level of professionalism and detail that I am simply incapable of understanding.

If Sorice really pushed my tournament directing to the next level, he was only able to do so because Kristin created such a great foundation. Scheduling, stats, and communication are a few of the many things that I learned from Kristin that are critical to running a successful tournament.

I would also be remiss if I did not mention that it was Kristin inviting me to write for SCOP that got me into the larger quizbowl world. Before that invite, I was active in a small local circuit, playing for an even smaller school, and didn't do much beyond that. I didn't write, I didn't organize anything on the scale that active high schoolers of today do, and I think I had one forum post to my name. Everything changed when Kristin invited me to SCOP and I cannot overstate my appreciation.

If I had to choose a word to represent Kristin, it would be thoroughness. There have been many times when Kristin and I have been working on a project together where I think something is good enough and she will continue to work until it is just right. There is not a project that I know of (ranging from writing to editing to packetizing to creating the newsletter to any of the other thousands of things she does) in which Kristin doesn't give it her all and then some. If you've ever used a fantastically crafted IHSSBCA schedule, used the IHSSBCA tournament calendar, or played SCOP, you can thank Kristin for making those things 100% better than if anyone else would have done them.

Closing

I can never hope to adequately explain the impact these people have had on me. Each and everyone of them has changed my life for the better and guided me from "a teenager who plays quizbowl" to "an adult that has real responsibility." I want to thank each and every one of them from the bottom of my heart, and I hope to continue receiving their mentorship for many years to come.

The above list is not all-inclusive. If you are someone who has attended an IHSSBCA Steering Committee meeting, or talked to me about quizbowl, or even are just someone I practice with, you have almost certainly had an impact on the way I view things.

I am overjoyed to have a community, both statewide and nationally, that has given so much to me, and I hope other people posting in this thread can appreciate their mentors too.
Last edited by TylerV on Sun Apr 12, 2020 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tyler Vaughan
UW-Platteville, Rock Valley, UIUC 2014-2017
Southern New Hampshire University 2020 - ?

"God the automatic cat feeder might be the best invention ever" - Brad McLain
alexdz
Rikku
Posts: 458
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:29 pm
Location: Conshohocken, PA

Re: Let's Remember Some Mentors

Post by alexdz »

Tyler, I think this is a fantastic idea, and I'd like to reflect on and honor a few of my quizbowl mentors.

Earl Williamson\
I started playing quizbowl in middle school, but things really took off for me when I joined my high school team, coached at the time by Earl Williamson. Mr. Williamson was the chemistry teacher and also a substitute bus driver (gotta love those small rural schools, y'all). I started playing JV, but Mr. Williamson saw something in me and invited me to start practicing with the varsity team. We weren't connected to the national circuit at the time, but he seemed to find a way to make sure I could study and practice on my own to "catch up" to my older teammates. He encouraged me to ask my math teacher Mr. Warner to borrow a calculus textbook as a freshman so that I could study some of the math computation that came up. He worked with his assistant coach to build an online practice platform with old questions (it was on our school server so I'm guessing it no longer exists). I was lucky enough to, under Mr. Williamson's leadership, be on his third state-qualifying team. He certainly encouraged my early development as a player and did his best to provide resources for me.

Charlie Dees
What can I say about Dees that hasn't already been said? When he found out we'd be going to Mizzou together, he contacted me and it was the beginning of something amazing. I was barely connected to the national world (please don't go read my early posts on this forum, yikes), and it was Dees who showed me the light. We dove in headfirst together and ran about a dozen events and attended as many as we could. For a long time, it was the Charlie and Alex show, and what a beautiful mess it was. If it wasn't for Charlie, I don't think I would have been able to found a team at Mizzou on my own. I'm truly indebted to him for introducing me to the wider world of quizbowl and mentoring me in the ways of good quizbowl.

Jason Loy
Jason is the reason I started writing quizbowl questions. When he found out that the Show-Me Conference was looking to order some new questions, he suggested me, and it ended up being the beginning of SAGES. And Jason was instrumental in either giving me feedback himself or finding people who could, and I improved greatly as a question writer because of him. And there's more! When I started coaching, Jason hosted an elementary event and I was able to introduce my students to the game thanks to his idea to host. Essentially, Jason's the one who got me into the elementary/middle school game, and it's now my favorite part of being involved in quizbowl!
Alex Dzurick
====
Owner/Editor, SAGES Quizbowl Questions
Middle school teacher, Rohan Woods School
====
South Callaway '08 -- Mizzou '12 -- Illinois '17
SCMS coach '12-'13 -- EFIP coach '20-'21 -- RWS coach '22-present
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Cheynem
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Re: Let's Remember Some Mentors

Post by Cheynem »

My main mentors, among many, have been my most frequent teammates at the University of Minnesota. Rather than talk about their skills at helping me to write or play, I want to address a key role that mentors play--they inspire and show respect.

I've told parts of these stories before, but at my first practice, when I knew nothing about college quizbowl, I remember Andrew Hart telling me "looks like you have some good film knowledge." That made me feel good, seeing as how I hadn't picked up a buzzer in six years and knew from the buzzes everyone else was getting that I was a few steps behind in knowledge base. Later on, I think at a different early practice, the conversation somehow shifted to the old Panasonic tournament. I mentioned that I had played at the tournament, and Rob Carson asked me a question about it (nobody else had played it). Even though I was a neophyte to the world of college quizbowl, I had an opinion and thoughts he valued and wanted to know about. Much later, I stayed at the home of Gautam/Gaurav Kandlikar overnight before a tournament. I remember talking to their dad and he made the offhand comment, "Mike, I've heard a lot about you from Gautam and Gaurav and your work studying pedestrian malls [which I had written an article on and gotten it published recently at the time]." This shows that Gautam/Gaurav cared enough about my work to remember it, even superficially, and to mention it to their parents (I would point out that I could not offer such a description of their work to my parents!).

Friends, these are very minor things--I doubt any of them remember what I'm talking about, nor would, say, Brendan Byrne remember saying "good buzz" when I got a rare buzz at my first Minnesota Open or Bernadette Spencer writing a brief yet lovely note of encouragement to me after I lost my teaching job. They are not monumental things, but they stick in one's mind way after particular tournaments or questions written fade in the background. Being a good mentor--and to some extent, all of my teammates were--is about doing these little things that inspire new players, retain existing players, and fill players of all skill levels with confidence and encouragement.
Mike Cheyne
Formerly U of Minnesota

"You killed HSAPQ"--Matt Bollinger
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